.- v 



THE MILITARY HOSPITALS 



Bethlehem and Lititz, Penn'a, 



DUBING THK 



REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 



JOHN WOOLF JORDAN, 

ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

AND A CORRESPONDING TIMBER OF THE 

WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



A Paper read kefore the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, 
April io, 1896, and before the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, May, 1896. 



Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 
July, 1896. 




WILKES-BARRE, PENN'A. 




Class. 
Book 



££3 



■ J* 2- 



THE MILITARY HOSPITALS 



Bethlehem and Lititz, Penn'a, 



DURING THE 



REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 



JOHN WOOLF JORDAN, 

ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

AND A CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE 

WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



A Paper read before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, 
April io, 1896, and before the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, May, 1896. 



Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 
July, 1896. 




WILKES-BARRE, PENN'A. 






433890 



THE MILITARY HOSPITALS 



AT 



BETHLEHEM AND LITITZ 



DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



For six years, from 1775 to 1781, Bethlehem was a thor- 
oughfare for troops ; twi^e in that interval it was the seat 
of a general hospital, and, in addition to the heavy baggage 
and munitions of war of the army and Washington's pri- 
vate baggage being parked in its suburbs, with its guard 
of two hundred Continentals commanded by Colonel Wil- 
liam Polk, of North Carolina, many of its houses were oc- 
cupied by American troops and British prisoners of war, 
and Congress found a temporary refuge there. The inhabit- 
ants, therefore, witnessed not only the horrors and expe- 
rienced the discomforts of war, but also its " pomp and cir- 
cumstance," for at times there were sojourning among them 
Generals Washington, Lafayette, Greene, Knox, Sterling, 
Schuyler, Gates, Sullivan, De Kalb, Steuben, Pulaski, and 
Arnold, with members of their staff, and General Charles 
Lee's division of the army, in command of General Sulli- 
van, was encamped opposite the town. 

3 



4 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

The population of Bethlehem averaged about five hundred 
souls, mainly domiciled in that pile of solidly built and 
commodious structures, buttressed and hip-roofed, which 
bound three sides of the quadrangle on Church Street, in 
the " Widows' House" over the way, and in the building 
of the single brethren, which fronted on the square. There 
was also the " Church Store" on Market Street, opposite the 
cemetery, the superintendent of which, on a certain occa- 
sion, with some asperity, remarked " that he had sufficient 
rope in the store to hang all the members of Congress," and 
thereby rendered his position uncomfortable, if not preca- 
rious. In its capacious cellars were stored the commissary 
and medical stores belonging to the hospital, and in the 
dwelling part sick and wounded officers found desirable 
quarters. Near by was the dwelling of Timothy Horsfield, 
who, during the French and Indian War, was a well-known 
magistrate and a colonel in the Provincial service, where 
refugees from Philadelphia and New York were provided 
with a temporary home. Beyond, to the west, resided Wil- 
liam Boehler, where Captain Thomas Webb, the founder of 
Methodism in America, and a British prisoner of war, with 
his family of seven persons, were comfortably accommo- 
dated. On what is now Main Street, and north of the 
" Brethren's House," stood the " Family House," for mar- 
ried people, in which for three weeks in 1777 were confined 
two hundred and eighteen British prisoners, one hundred 
of whom were the partisan Highlanders of Donald Mac- 
Donald, from the Cross Creek settlement, near Fayetteville, 
North Carolina. Their guard of one hundred Continentals 
were given quarters in the water-works building. When 
they marched for Reading and Lancaster, the surgeons of 
the hospital occupied the building. 

Farther up the thoroughfare, clustered about the " first 
house," were the farm buildings, and not far distant the 
dwelling of Frederick Boeckel, the farmer-general of the 
Moravian estates, where Lafayette, who was wounded at 
Brandywine, was tenderly nursed to convalescence by Dame 
Barbara Boeckel and her pretty daughter Liesel. The lat- 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 5 

ter was still living when the marquis revisited the United 
States. The last house, on the high ground overlooking 
the valley of the Monocacy, was the Sun Inn, a hostelry 
with a reputation unsurpassed in the Colonies for the excel- 
lence of its table and exquisite old Port and Madeira wine ; 
and we question whether any other inn in the country can 
lay claim to have entertained and sheltered under its roof 
so many of the leading patriots, statesmen, and military 
chieftains of the American Revolution. 

Strung along the banks of the Monocacy Creek, which 
then formed the western bounds of this old historic town, 
were the water-works, mills, and shops, some of which were 
occupied by the hospital guard, convalescent soldiers, and 
surgeons. The guard-house of the detail of troops on duty 
was located near the saw-mill, and close by one of the prin- 
cipal fords over the Lehigh. Such is a partial description 
of Bethlehem during the period under consideration. 

Almost unheeded, in so far as its massive stone walls 
have been assimilated with the brick and mortar of the 
modern structures with which it has been incorporated, 
stands what was formerly the " Single Brethren's House," 
but now the middle building of the Moravian Seminary and 
College for Women. It has weathered the storms of well- 
nigh a century and a half, and outlived great changes in 
the history of our country and in the history of the people 
by whom it was built. Twice during the Revolution it was 
occupied as one of the general hospitals of the army, the 
first time from December of 1776 to April of 1777, and for 
the last time from September of 1777 to April of 1778, 
where were witnessed suffering and death, revolting to hu- 
manity, in all their details of misery. 

Turning to the chronicles of Bethlehem, we find that the 
corner-stone of the " Single Brethren's House" was laid on 
April 1, 1748; that its dimensions were eighty- three by 
fifty feet ; in height three stories, and above a broken roof, 
surmounted by a belvedere forty feet long, — a fine specimen 
of the style of building to which the Moravians of the last 
century were partial. The interior was arranged so as to 



6 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

separate the youths from the single men, on the first floor, 
four rooms being assigned to each. On the second floor 
were the refectories, the rooms of the superintendents, and 
the chapel ; and on the third, and under the roof, the dormi- 
tories and extra rooms. In the summer of 1762 an east 
wing and in 1769 a west wing were added, in which some 
workshops for the trades conducted by the inmates were 
fitted up. The belvedere, from which a fine view of the 
valley of the Lehigh could be obtained, in ante-revolutionary 
days was a favorite resort for some of the governors of the 
Province, where they were entertained with cake, wine, and 
music, when en route to Easton to make treaties with the 
Indians, or on social visits to the Aliens at Trout Hall. 

After the defeat of the American army on Long Island, 
in August of 1776, General Washington withdrew his troops 
to New York, which city, however, a few days subsequently, 
fell into the hands of the enemy. This loss was followed 
by that of Fort Washington and Fort Lee in quick succes- 
sion. Having crossed the North River into New Jersey, 
the commander-in-chief continued his retreat to Newark, 
New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton, closely pursued 
by Cornwallis. It was at this crisis in the affairs of the 
army that the removal of its general hospital, in which over 
one thousand sick and wounded were lying, from Morris- 
town to some points in the interior of Pennsylvania became 
an imperative necessit}^, and Bethlehem was one of those 
selected. Its situation, which, while somewhat interior, was 
not too remote from the line of military operations, and its 
commodious buildings were points of importance which 
the American officers were not slow in appreciating. In 
addition, the commissary department knew that its wants 
could be well supplied by an agricultural community who 
were in possession of large and fertile farms. On Decem- 
ber 3, 1776, the brotherhood were excited by the arrival of 
Dr. Cornelius Baldwin, of the New Jersey Line, direct from 
the army, who rode up to the clergy house and delivered to 
the Rev. John Ettwein, to whom he was directed, the fol- 
lowing order : 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 7 
"To the Committee of the Town of Bethlehem, or others 

WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. 

" Gentlemen, — According to his Excellency General Washington's 
Orders, the General Hospital of the Army is removed to Bethlehem, 
and you will do the greatest Act of humanity by immediately providing 
proper buildings for their reception, the largest and most capacious will 
be the most convenient. I doubt not, Gentlemen, but you will act upon 
this occasion as becomes men and Christians. Doctor Baldwin, the Gen- 
tleman who waits upon you with this, is sent upon the Business of Pro- 
viding proper Accommodations for the sick ; begging therefore that you 
afford him all possible assistance, I am Gentlemen 

" Your most obedient humble Servant 

" John Warren 
" Gen' I Hospital Surg'n. and P. 1. Direct." 

He also brought a letter from Abraham Berlin, of the 
Northampton County Committee of Safety, addressed to 
Bishop Nathaniel Siedel, requesting that suitable accom- 
modations for the sick be furnished. 

Towards evening Drs. William Shippen and Warren 
arrived and made arrangements with the Kev. Mr. Ettwein 
for the reception of about two hundred and fifty of the sick. 
Dr. Shippen stated that all the patients at the Morristown 
hospital had been ordered to Bethlehem, but since " we had 
shown such a willingness to provide for them, he would now 
arrange to quarter the greater number at Easton and Allen- 
town." 

The ensuing two days were days of unrest for the peace- 
loving Moravians, for the sick, in charge of their surgeons, 
commenced to arrive in large numbers and in all manner 
of conveyances. Their sufferings from exposure to the 
weather and improper transportation made them pitiable 
objects to behold, and two died while waiting to be removed 
from the wagons. When it was learned that they were 
famishing for the want of food, the benevolent Moravians 
relieved them, for three days elapsed before the hospital 
and commissary supplies arrived. Room had been prepared 
for their reception, so that it was not necessary for the one 
hundred and twenty-two single brethren to vacate their 
building ; and by giving up some rooms and increasing the 



8 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

number of occupants of others, it enabled the surgeons to 
establish five wards. 

On December 7 two deaths occurred in the hospital, 
whereupon it became necessary that a burial-place should 
be selected, and the site chosen was on the bluff on the 
west bank of the Monocacy Creek, near the line of the pres- 
ent Monocacy Avenue, in "West Bethlehem. In digging 
the cellars for new buildings in that section of the borough, 
portions of coffins and human bones have been unearthed, 
which of recent years have been reinterred in the burial-lot 
of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Dr. 
Shippen, writing from Bethlehem to Hon. Richard Henry 
Lee, states, " After much difficulty and expense, I have re- 
moved all the sick to Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown ; 
their number is now much reduced and all are in a good 
way. I send twenty or thirty weekly to join the army. 
There is no Paymaster General near us and I am almost 
out of cash ; I must therefore beg the favor of you to pro- 
cure me $5000 and send them by the bearer Dr. Hailing." 

On December 10 the Rev. Mr. Ettwein commenced his 
visits to the sick in their wards in the hospital, speaking 
words of cheer and giving spiritual comfort when needed, 
a practice which he continued semi-weekly during the en- 
suing three months. Two days later the wife and family 
of Dr. Shippen joined him, and were given accommodations 
to the end of March, 1777. During their sojourn their in- 
fant son, William Arthur Lee Shippen, died, and, at the 
request of the parents, was buried in the Moravian ceme- 
tery. The wife of Dr. Isaac Foster (who had been ordered 
to the New England hospitals) was also provided with a 
room. 

At the vigils of Christmas Eve all the doctors not on duty 
were present; but the pleasures of Christmas Day were in- 
terrupted by the arrival of a courier with orders for Dr. 
Shippen and his principal surgeons to report at once to the 
army of Washington, who was moving to the surprise of 
the Hessians at Trenton. 

On New Year's Day, 1777, the Rev. Mr. Ettwein visited 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 9 

every inmate of the hospital and wished them God's bless- 
ing, and on January 8, Dr. John Morgan and a number of 
the surgeons were ordered to New England. Towards the 
end of February the small-pox was brought to the town 
by some soldiers, forty of whom were inoculated, as well as 
some children, and by this prompt action its spread was 
averted. 

On March 14, Dr. Jonathan Potts, who had been ap- 
pointed to succeed Dr. Samuel Stringer, director of the 
hospitals of the Northern Department, with his staff of sur- 
geons and several wagon-loads of medical stores, passed 
through the town en route to Albany; and Dr. James Hous- 
ton, who Mr. Ettwein records " was the most skillful and 
attentive of the surgeons in the Hospital here," pursuant to 
orders, set out to join the army in the Jerseys. 

On March 27 orders were received to transfer the hospital 
to Philadelphia, and after thirty convalescents were de- 
spatched to the army and the sick removed, the building 
was turned over to the cleaners, and in a short time the 
vacated rooms were reoccupied by their former inmates. 

The Rev. Mr. Ettwein, who virtually acted as chaplain of 
the hospital, has recorded that during the month of Decem- 
ber sixty-two deaths occurred, in a large degree due to the 
effects of exposure in removal, and that by the close of the 
winter the number had been increased to one hundred and 
ten. Many attentions were extended to the sufferers by 
the single brethren who remained in the house and by 
members of the congregation, and the sisters prepared lint 
and bandages. Furthermore, the Moravian carpenters 
made the coffins and dug the graves of those who died, 
charitable offices which are not unworthy the remembrance 
of posterity. 

It may also be stated that Colonel Isaac Reed, of the 
Fourth Virginia Line, who since December 5, 1776, had 
been provided with quarters at the " Church Store" for med- 
ical treatment, was unable to leave before Sunday, June 22, 
1777; that eighteen single brethren took turns in carrying 
him to the ferry over the Lehigh, where a chair and two 



10 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

horses were in waiting, and that two of their number 
accompanied his physician, Dr. Alexander Skinner, of 
" Light-Horse Harry Lee's Legion," and Paymaster John 
Sutton, of his regiment, to assist in the journey to Philadel- 
phia, where, unfortunately, the colonel died, and was buried 
August 21. Dr. John Duffield, who had lain sick at "Wil- 
liam Boehler's for months, left on July 7, " the last of the 
sick attached to the Hospital here," states the chronicler of 
Bethlehem. 

The final occupation of the "Single Brethren's House" 
as a general hospital occurred between September 20, 1777, 
and April 15, 1778, and was due to the unsuccessful stand 
for the defence of Philadelphia made by Washington at the 
Brandywine, and the subsequent movements of the British. 
Dr. Shippen expostulated against the removal of the 
wounded to Bethlehem, owing to the distance, as many 
deaths would be sure to follow, but the commander-in- 
chief felt that there was no alternative. 

On the evening of September 13 the news reached Beth- 
lehem that Washington's army had been compelled to fall 
back on Philadelphia, and three days later a letter was re- 
ceived from David Rittenhouse stating that all the military 
stores of the army, in upwards of seven hundred wagons, 
had been ordered to the town. The church bells of Phila- 
delphia, with " Independence Bell," were also transported 
to Bethlehem, en route to Allentown, and the wagon on 
which " Independence Bell" was loaded broke down on 
descending the hill in front of the hospital, and had to be 
unloaded while repairs were being made. 

On Tuesday, September 19, Dr. Hall Jackson arrived 
from Trenton with the following letter, addressed to the 
Rev. Mr. Ettwein : 

" My D'r Sir, — It gives me pain to be obliged by Order of Congress 
to send my sick and wounded to your peaceable village, but so it is. 
Your large buildings must be appropriated to tbeir use. We will want 
room for two thousand at Bethlehem, Easton, Northampton, &c, and 
you may expect them Saturday or Sunday. I send Dr. Jackson before 
them, that you may have time to order your affairs in the best manner. 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 11 

These are dreadful times, consequences of unnatural wars. I am truly 
concerned for your Society and wish sincerely this stroke could be 
averted, but 'tis impossible. I beg Mr. Hasse's assistance — love and 
compliments from my d'r sir, 

" Your affectionate 

" humble serv't 

" William Shippen 
"D. G." 



" Seeing ourselves," writes Mr. Ettwein, " under the 
necessity of relieving the distress of the country, we gave 
orders for the vacation of the Single Brethren's House, and 
its inmates to be distributed in Nazareth and adjacent set- 
tlements. On Saturday we began to realize the extent of 
the panic that had stricken the inhabitants of the capital, as 
crowds of civilians as well as men in military life, began to 
enter the town in the character of fugitives, among the 
number, the Hon. Richard Henry Lee and Benjamin Harri- 
son, of Virginia; Cornelius Harnett, of North Carolina; 
and William Duer, of New York, Delegates to Congress, 
and Dr. William Brown, who came to inspect the house for 
the Hospital." By Sunday morning the building was 
cleared, with the exception of the kitchen and cellar and the 
saddler's shop, which were to be occupied by a few of the 
single brethren who were to remain. Hon. Henry Laurens 
and other notables arrived in time to attend service in the 
chapel, and towards evening the first of the sick and 
wounded began to arrive, among them Lafayette, wounded 
in the leg, accompanied by his aide De Gimat; General 
William Woodford, wounded in the hand; and Colonel 
Armstrong, late from the field of Brandywine. 

By Monday the hospital was filled, and tents were erected 
for those who could not be accommodated in the building; 
and the apothecary's shop was opened in one of the small 
buildings on the grounds. The doctors then began to look 
around for another building, and suggested either the 
"Sisters'" or "Widows' House," but to this Mr. Ettwein 
demurred. While escorting Mr. Laurens, Mr. Adams, and 
other delegates to Congress through these buildings, he 



12 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

took occasion to plead for their inmates and to represent 
the distress an ejectment from their houses would cause. 
He was listened to respectfully, and the assurance given 
that these houses would he exempt from hospital purposes. 
On returning to the Sun Inn, Mr. Laurens requested Hon. 
Richard Henry Lee to issue the following order, the original 
of which is preserved in the Moravian archives : 

" Bethlehem, September 22, 1777. 
" Having here observed a diligent attention to the sick and wounded, 
and a benevolent desire to make the necessary provision for the relief 
of the distressed as far as the power of the Brethren enable them — 

" We desire that all Continental officers may refrain from disturbing 
the persons or property of the Moravians in Bethlehem ; and, particu- 
larly, that they do not disturb or molest the houses where the women 
are assembled. 

" Given under our hands at the place and time above mentioned. 
" John Hancock, William Duer, 

" Samuel Adams, Cornelius Harnett, 

" James Duane, Richard Henry Lee, 

" Nathan Brownson, Henry Laurens, 

" Nathaniel Folsom, Benjamin Harrison, 

" Richard Law, Joseph Jones, 

" Eliphalet Dyer, John Adams, 

"Henry Marchant, William Williams, 

" Delegates to Congress." 

The same evening the archives and money of Congress, 
under an escort of fifty troopers and fifty infantry, arrived 
from Trenton, to which point they had been transported 
from Philadelphia. 

On October 7 some of the wounded from the battle of 
Germantown began to arrive, and by the 22d the patients 
in the hospital numbered upwards of four hundred, and 
fifty were being treated in tents, when the doctors refused 
to receive any more. The next day a cold rain-storm set 
in and " the sun was hid for six days." 

Hospital Commissary Hugh James arrived October 28, 
with orders from Dr. Benajmin Rush to provide for one hun- 
dred additional patients until the weather would permit of 
their removal elsewhere ; and to make room a frame build- 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 13 

ing fifty feet long was erected in the garden, to which the 
hospital kitchen was transferred, and the invalid guard was 
quartered in the water-works building, and in the fulling- 
mill a number of the doctors and mates opened their 
office. 

Dr. Shippen, writing to Congress, states, "The pressing 
necessity of the Hospitals which begin to feel the effects of 
cold and dirt (I foretold in my last to the Medical Commit- 
tee) calls on me to address you in a serious manner and 
urge you to furnish us with an immediate supply of cloth- 
ing, requisite for the very existence of the sick now in the 
greatest distress in the hospitals and indispensably neces- 
sary to enable many who are now well and detained solely 
for want of clothing to return to the army." 

At his solicitation, the Moravians made several collections 
of blankets for the destitute soldiers, also shoes, stockings, 
and breeches for the convalescents, many of whom had 
arrived in rags swarming with vermin, while others had 
been deprived of their all by their comrades. In the col- 
lection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania there is 
an original document in which a soldier accuses his wife of 
robbing an officer who was wounded at Brandywine : 

" To Major Johnson, 

" Sir, — I do hereby accuse my wife with the Robbery committed on 
the Body of Capt. [James] Grier, of the First Pennsylvania Regiment 
commanded by Col. Chambers, sd Robbery consisting of one Silver 
watch, two Thirty Dollar bills, one Five Dollar Virginia Bill, and some 
small bills at present not Remembered — the above Thief Mary Myler 
lives at the Fullin Mill Hospital under Dr. Otto. 

(signed) " Mat Myler." 

There is preserved in the Moravian archives at Bethle- 
hem the following brief but pithy notes of Surgeon Samuel 
Finley, of the hospital staff; Lieutenant-Colonel John 
Cropper, of the Eleventh Virginia Line; and Rev. John 
Ettwein, all written on the same sheet of paper : 

"Sir, — The Bearer, Mr. Carr, is in possession of Part of a House 
near the Fulling Mill, the owner of which wants him put out. He has 



14 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution . 

applied to me for leave to stay until he is sufficiently well to shift for 
himself, as he is to all Intents and purposes an invalid. I have told 
him it was not in my power to do anything in his favor. He then de- 
sired me to write to you for advice and assistance, for if he is turned 
out, he has no chance of having his cure completed. 

"lam 

" With respect 

" your very humble serv't. 

"Samuel Finley. 
" Bethlehem, Jan. 6, 1778. 

" To Col. Cropper." 

"In complyance with the request afs'd, these do certify, that Mr. 
Carr is not to be moved until my orders. Given under my hand at 
Bethlehem 6th Jan. 

"John Cropper, 

"Lieut. Col." 

" Col. Cropper has none to command in Bethlehem but his soldiers. 
Therefore we cannot receive his orders. Mr. Carr does not belong to 
the Hospital ; we want the place where he is and he must move without 

e a ^' " John Ettwein. 

"N.B.— Was directly fetched away by Mr. Finley into the Hospital." 

During the month of November the Rev. Mr. Ettwein 
was occasionally called to the hospital to visit the dying 
and also to preach, and I find that he notes four deaths : 
Dr. Aquila Wilmot, of the hospital staff; Hospital Steward 
Robert Gillespie, a native of County Carlow, Ireland ; Robert 
Lepus, of the Maryland Line ; and a Narragansett Indian. 
Dr. Wilmot and Steward Gillespie were buried in the Mo- 
ravian cemetery, the first in the row set apart at that time 
for members of other persuasions, now known as the 
" Strangers' Row." 

Early in December great numbers of sick soldiers were 
transferred from the hospitals in New Jersey to Bethlehem. 
They came in open wagons, often amid snow and rain, with 
clothing insufiicient to cover their fevered bodies from the 
piercing cold, and between Christmas and New Year up- 
wards of seven hundred were reported in the " Single 
Brethren's House" alone. The mortality from putrid fever 
rapidly increased, and especially was this the case on the 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 15 

upper floors of the hospital, where the ventilation was de- 
fective and the filth and pollution intolerable. Here was a 
field for Christian benevolence which the Moravians cheer- 
fully entered, and Mr. Ettwein, with his assistant, the Rev. 
Jacob Fries, were indefatigable in their attentions. They 
braved the pestilence in its stronghold, smoothing the pil- 
lows of the dying and imparting the consolations of religion. 
The doctors made every effort to suppress the number of 
the deaths that took place; even the making of coffins and 
digging of graves, which the winter before had been gen- 
erously performed by the Moravians, was now delegated 
to the soldiers of the hospital guard ; but, nevertheless, Mr. 
Ettwein states that upwards of three hundred died during 
the last three months of the year 1777. 

Director-General Shippen, in explaining some of the 
causes of this great mortality, states, " The want of clothing 
and covering necessary to keep the soldiers clean and warm, 
articles at that time not procurable in the country ; — partly 
from an army being composed of raw men, unused to camp 
life and undisciplined ; exposed to great hardships, and 
from the sick and wounded being removed great distances 
in open wagons." 

Dr. James Tilton, of the Delaware Line, who was recover- 
ing from a severe and tedious case of the fever, and was 
resting for a few days at Bethlehem on his way home, was 
told by Dr. Samuel Finley, of the hospital staff, " that they 
were very deficient in even the commonest necessaries; 
that when the wounded arrived they immediately became 
affected with the fever; and that the commissary, matron, 
nurses and waiters, and all but one of the surgeons had 
had the infection. All the doctors were of the opinion that 
only about two hundred patients should have been admitted, 
whereas from five to seven hundred had been crowded into 
the building at times. To enable me to form some idea of 
the great mortality, he asked me whether I was acquainted 
with the Sixth Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel 
Gibson, reputed to be one of the best in the army, and 
stated that forty had been admitted, but not three would 



1 6 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

return to their regiment, all the rest had been buried. 
He had no hesitation in declaring that we lost from ten 
to twenty of camp diseases for one by weapons of the 
enemy." 

Dr. "William Smith, also of the hospital staff, states " that 
he had known from four to five patients die on the same 
straw before it was changed, and that many of them had 
been admitted only for slight disorders. Of the eleven 
junior surgeons and mates, ten took the infection, most of 
them dangerously so, and one, Dr. Joseph Harrison, had 
died ; and of the three hospital stewards, two had died and 
the third narrowly escaped. Owing to the crowded wards, 
and the want of almost every necessary, it was impossible 
to prevent an increase of the infection, and that the suffer- 
ings of the sick could not be attributed to negligence or 
inattention of the surgeons and physicians." 

Dr. William Brown, who began to compile, while at the 
hospital in Bethlehem, the first Pharmacopoeia published in 
America, states " that when the hospital was opened it was 
many weeks without so necessary articles as brooms, and 
that at last he was obliged to have them taken from the in- 
habitants of the town." 

Dr. Moses Scott, of the New Jersey Line, who was at the 
hospital for three months, writes that during that time 
" between eight and nine hundred patients were admitted, 
thirty-four of whom died, and that owing to the moving of 
the Hospitals in the beginning, it was almost impossible to 
make exact returns of the sick and wounded. Upon com- 
putation, allowing four feet for each patient, we concluded 
that the house would hold three hundred and sixty without 
crowding." 

Towards the close of December information was received, 
through Dr. Thomas Bond, that the hospital was to be re- 
moved to the west of the Schuylkill, but as the process was 
naturally a slow one, it was early in the spring before it was 
effected. This year the vigils of Christmas Eve were at- 
tended by forty of the hospital staff and convalescent offi- 
cers. On the last day of the year the son of the Rev. Mr. 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and IAtitz during the Revolution. 17 

Ettwein died of the fever, which he had probably contracted 
from the visitations of his father to the hospital. 

During the first weeks of the new year, 1778, there was 
little or no abatement in the mortality-rate, and the effluvia 
from the hospital carried sickness into the town. Seven of 
the single brethren died during the occupation of their 
building. 

The following letter from Hon. Richard Henry Lee to 
Dr. Shippen refers to plans which the latter had proposed 
for the relief of the hospitals : 

" Baltimore, January 1, 1778. 
" My deak Sir,— A happy New Year is my wish for you and your 
family ; that it will be a year of freedom, our brave troops appear de- 
termined. . . . The Congress have lately invested General Washington 
with complete power to displace and place and direct anything relative 
to the military Hospitals. To him therefore let me advise you to make 
your immediate application, lay your plans before him, and prove as 
you have done to me, the propriety of adopting them. No doubt can 
remain but that they will meet with his approbation and support. 
Seasons for expecting the strongest friendship from France and Spain 
multiply upon us every day. If they can be prevailed with to make 
war, farewell the glory of England ! . . . 

" Our best love attends. 

" Farewell 
" Richard Henry Lee. 
" Dr. William Shippen, Jr. 
" at Bethlehem, 

" Favored by Col. Stewart." 

Colonel James Wood, of the Twelfth (later the Eighth) 
Virginia Line, who had lain sick at William Boehler's, and 
a number of convalescent soldiers, left for the army, but the 
removal of the sick progressed slowly. At last, on April 8, 
the hearts of the inhabitants of Bethlehem were gladdened 
by the arrival of the final order to close the hospital ; but 
it was not until June 27 that the single brethren reoccu- 
pied their building, and the trades resumed work after its 
renovation. 

General Lachlan Mcintosh, who was in Bethlehem super- 
intending the transfer of the hospital, reports, under date 
of April 26, " to his Excellency the Commander-in-chief," 



18 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

that from January 1 to April 12, 1778, " eighty-one soldiers 
died; twenty-five deserted; one hundred and twenty-two 
were discharged and sent to the army ; eleven were at the 
shoe factory [in Allentown], two attending on sick and 
wounded officers, and all the rest removed from the hos- 
pital." 1 

The late Jedediah "Weiss, of Bethlehem, who was an 
inmate of the "Single Brethren's House" in his youth, 
informed me that he remembered seeing the marks of the 
iron-shod crutches on the floor of the chapel, where the 
convalescents were wont to exercise. But these traces of 
hospital life disappeared when the building, in 1815, was 
converted to school purposes. 

In October of 1779, Lewis "Weiss, Esq., attorney for the 
Wardens of the Single Brethren of Bethlehem, petitioned 
Congress to reimburse them for the actual outlays in re- 
storing their building to its former condition, inasmuch as 
no charge for rent had been made or damages claimed for 
loss to the trades, and rendered the following account : 

£ s. d. 
Glazing 121 panes of glass, painting 27 rooms, 

130 window frames, stair banisters and 

presses 188 15 6 

Mason work, white-washing and 55 Barrels of 

Lime 76 5 

Cleaning house, yard and scraping walls 45 

8 Earthen stoves 12 

Repairs to locks of doors &c 9 

Carpenter and joiner work 27 7 6 

Penna. cy £358 8 

The following list of the medical officers at the Bethle- 
hem Hospital, though not complete, is, however, authentic, 
and is given as matter for record : William Shippen, Jr., 
of Pennsylvania; John Morgan, of Pennsylvania; John 
Warren, of Massachusetts; Thomas Bond, Jr., of Pennsyl- 
vania; Moses Scott, of New Jersey; William Brown, of 

1 This was the only report from this hospital found in the various 
government departments at Washington, D.C. 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 19 

Maryland; William Smith, of Pennsylvania; William P. 
Smith, of New York; Cornelius Baldwin, of New Jersey; 
Bodo Otto, of Pennsylvania; Samuel Finley, of Massachu- 
setts ; James B. Finley, of Massachusetts ; Aquila Wilmot, 
of Pennsylvania ; James Houston, of Pennsylvania; Joseph 
Harrison, of Virginia; John Duffield, of Massachusetts; 
S. Hailing, of Pennsylvania ; John Hindman, of Maryland ; 
Francis Allison, Jr., of Pennsylvania; John Scott, of Mary- 
land; Hall Jackson, of New Hampshire. Hugh James, 
Commissary of Hospitals ; Robert Gillespie, Hospital Stew- 
ard ; Joseph Shippen (brother of the Director), Paymaster ; 
and John Brown Cutting, Apothecary of Middle Depart- 
ment. 

The following officers and privates I have ascertained 
were patients at the hospital : Ensign Jacob Fiss, Eleventh 
Pennsylvania Line; Corporal Robert Carson, of Captain 
Samuel Moore's company, Third Pennsylvania Line, 
wounded in the leg at Brandywine ; George Filsin, First 
Pennsylvania Line, shot through left leg at Trenton, trans- 
ferred to hospital at Lititz and to Yellow Springs ; Samuel 
Nichols, Sixth Pennsylvania Line; George Berkman, Sec- 
ond Pennsylvania Line; John Nagle, Captain Joseph Er- 
win's company, Ninth Pennsylvania Line ; Thomas Powel, 
Maryland Line; Robert Lepus, Maryland Line; Lucas 
Sherman, Virginia Line; Richard Thompson, Virginia 

Line ; John Chaffs ; Preus, a native of the Tyrol ; and 

Matthias Ambrett, private Captain James Grier's company, 
Tenth Pennsylvania Line. No official lists are preserved. 

A fair computation of the number of deaths at the Beth- 
lehem Hospital is upwards of five hundred, — a startling 
mortality-rate, indeed, when we consider the number of sick 
and wounded admitted. But this was not exceptional, for 
the death-rate at the hospitals at Reading, Lititz, and 
Ephrata was proportionately as great as at Bethlehem. 

But Bethlehem was not the only settlement of the Mora- 
vians in which an army hospital was established during the 
Revolution. Their little village of Lititz, in Lancaster 
County, with a population less than half that of Bethlehem, 



20 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

but with the usual collection of substantial and commodious 
buildings, for upwards of eight months was the seat of 
one. 

On December 14, 1777, Dr. Samuel Kennedy, formerly 
surgeon of Wayne's battalion, arrived at the village with a 
written order of General "Washington to provide for the 
quartering of two hundred and fifty sick and wounded sol- 
diers. After listening to the objections and representations 
of Bishop Hehl, he selected the building of the single men, 
in which almost every trade was carried on except printing, 
and ordered that it be immediately vacated, as some of 
the sick were on the way hither. The inmates were 
lodged elsewhere, but retained the use of the kitchen and 
cellar. 

The first sick to arrive — about eighty — occurred on De- 
cember 19, and the following day fifteen wagon-loads more, 
from the Jerseys, filled all the rooms and halls of the build- 
ing. The two doctors in charge and the commissary were 
also given rooms. In a few days putrid fever broke out to 
an alarming extent ; both doctors were taken down with it, 
and the village physician, Dr. Adolph Meyer, took their 
place until relieved, ten days later, " by a Doctor who was 
a German from Saxony," whose name I have failed to ascer- 
tain. Some of the soldiers who were able to be about, fear- 
ing the malady, absented themselves from the hospital, but 
a snow-storm a few days later compelled them to return. 
On the last day of the year a wagon-load of sick arrived 
from Reading. Seven deaths were reported in ten days, 
all from the fever. 

The first convalescents — twenty in number — were de- 
spatched to the army on January 9, 1778 ; and thus it con- 
tinued almost daily, convalescent soldiers leaving only to 
make room for sick and wounded ones. On the 18th, Dr. 
"William Brown arrived from Bethlehem, with a letter from 
the Rev. Mr. Ettwein, requesting that quarters be given to 
his family ; but this could not be done at this time. Dr. 
Brown, who took charge of the hospitals of the district, was 
born in Virginia in 1748, and received his degree of M.D. 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 21 

from Edinburgh University in 1770. On the breaking out 
of the Revolution he offered his services, and for a time 
served as surgeon of the Virginia regiment commanded by 
Colonel William Woodford. In February of 1778 he was 
appointed Physician-General of the Middle Department to 
succeed Dr. Benjamin Rush. He resigned from the service 
July 21, 1780, and died near Alexandria, Virginia, January 
11, 1792. The preface to Dr. Brown's " Pharmacopoeia" is 
dated at Lititz, March 12, 1778. 

Dr. Francis Allison, Jr., who had also been serving in the 
hospital at Bethlehem with Dr. Brown, was transferred to 
Lititz. After the removal of the hospital to Lancaster, his 
family resided in the village for ten months. 

Daring the month of January the fever became epidemic, 
and five of the Moravians who had volunteered as nurses 
and the assistant pastor of the congregation, the Rev. John 
J. Schmick (who had served for a number of years in the 
Indian mission), died of the malady. On March 22 the 
Rev. Mr. Ettwein learned from Dr. Shippen that it was 
proposed to establish a general hospital at Lititz, and as 
this would practically necessitate the abandonment of the 
village, he wrote a personal letter and despatched it to head- 
quarters at Valley Forge, soliciting that the order, if issued, 
be countermanded. Washington's reply is dated March 
28, the day on which he appointed Baron Steuben inspector- 
general of the army. 

« Sir,— I have received your letter of 25 th by Mr. Hasse, setting forth 
the injury that will be done to the Inhabitants of Letiz by establishing 
a General Hospital there — it is needless to explain how essential an 
establishment of this Kind is to the welfare of the Army, and you must 
be sensible that it cannot be made any where without occasioning in- 
convenience to some set of people or other — At the same time it is 
ever my wish and aim that the public good be effected with as little 
sacrifice as possible of individual interests — and I would by no means 
sanction the imposing any burthens on the people in whose favor you 
remonstrate, which the public service does not require. The arrange- 
ment and distribution of the Hospitals depends entirely on D r Shippen, 
and I am persuaded that he will not exert the authority vested in him 
unnecessarily to your prejudice. It would be proper, however, to repre- 



22 Hospitals at Bethlehem and Lititz during the Revolution. 

sent to him the circumstances of the inhabitants of Letiz, and you 
may if you choose it, communicate the contents of this letter to him. 

" I am Sir 

" Your most obed't Serv*, 

"Go Washington." 

A few days later Bishop Hehl wrote to Dr. Shippen, at 
Manheim, on the same subject, and received the following 
reply : 

" Sir, — I am so much affected at the very thoughts of distressing a 

Society I have so great an esteem for, that you may depend upon it I 

will not put in execution the proposal of removing the inhabitants of 

Lititz, unless cruel necessity urges, which at present I don't imagine 

will be the case. If we should fix the General Hospital and take more 

room in your village it shall be done in a manner the least distressing 

and disagreeable to your flock that is possible, of which I will consult you. 

" I am Sir 

" Your and the Congregations 

" Affectionate & Very humble Servant 

"W Shippen. 
" Manheim, 

" 9 April 1778." 

Fortunately for the inhabitants of Lititz, the occasion did 
not arise for the establishing of a general hospital in their 
village, but the " Brethren's House" was occupied for five 
months longer. 

Teu days after the receipt of Dr. Shippen's letter nine 
wagon-loads of sick and wounded arrived from the hos- 
pitals at Bethlehem, Easton, Allentown, and Reading. 

After supervising the closing of the general hospital at 
Bethlehem, General Mcintosh, who signs his reports as 
"Visiting Officer," proceeded to Lititz, from whence he re- 
ported to the commander-in-chief that from February 1 to 
April 20, 1778, " 264 wounded and sick soldiers had been 
admitted to the Hospital ; that 142 had been discharged 
and sent to camp; 83 had died and deserted, and 39 
were under treatment." 1 He also reported: "The ac- 
counts of the first Doctors cannot be found. This is a 

1 The only report from this hospital found at Washington, D.C. 



Hospitals at Bethlehem and Idtitz during the Revolution. 23 

convenient and pleasant place for a Hospital, and is so near 
Lancaster, that the same officer and surgeons may attend 
both. The hospitals at Schaefferstown [Lebanon] and 
Ephrata should be removed here, as both are very incon- 
venient.'* 

But the time was approaching when the hospital was to 
be removed from the town. On August 21 the surgeons 
were notified to make preparations ; on the 28th the order 
arrived, and the removal of the remaining sixty-six patients 
to Lancaster and the Yellow Springs commenced. A few 
days later the chronicler of the village writes, "We are 
devoutly thankful that the heavy burden of the Hospital 
in our midst has been removed, and we certainly find it de- 
lightful to enjoy again our former peaceful life. It must be 
said, however, that Dr. Allison maintained order and disci- 
pline to the best of his ability." 

During the occupation of the " Brethren's House" (eight 
months and ten days) one hundred and twenty soldiers died 
there. A burial-place was selected about a quarter of a 
mile to the east of the village; but, although diligent 
search has been made, the exact site has never been found, 
and it may be that the resting-place of these patriots will 
always remain unmarked and unknown. 



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